Page 29 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 27 March 2017

Bad breath: Study find array of bacteria when orcas exhale

PHUONG LE above an orca’s blowhole, ful the microbes are to the
Associated Press capturing the droplets that orcas.
SEATTLE (AP) — When the sprayed out. “Because you find a
mighty orca breaks to the Using those unique breath potential pathogen, it
surface and exhales, the samples captured over a doesn’t mean the animal is
whale sprays an array of four-year period, the study necessarily sick. It might be
bacteria and fungi in its identifies an array of bac- something normal,” said
his breath, scientists said, teria and fungi contained Linda Rhodes, supervisory
some good, and some bad in the exhaled breath of research microbiologist
such as salmonella. the small, distinct popula- with the Northwest Fisheries
The findings in a new study tion of southern resident kill- Science Center in Seattle
raises concerns about the er whales of the northeast and co-author.
potential role of infectious Pacific Ocean. Bacteria are there, and if
diseases as another major The number of Puget for any reason the animals
stress factor for the strug- Sound orcas has fluctuated become immune-sup-
gling population of endan- in recent decades as they pressed, it could provide
gered Puget Sound orcas. have faced threats from an opening to make the
Those orcas’ breath sam- lack of prey, pollution and In this Jan. 18, 2014, file photo, a female orca leaps from the wa- orcas sick, Raverty said.
ples revealed microbes ca- noise disturbance from ves- ter while breaching in Puget Sound west of Seattle, as seen from Scientists tracking deaths
pable of causing diseases. sels. The orcas were listed a federal research vessel that has been tracking the whale. of whales found that respi-
Some were resistant to mul- as endangered in 2005, Associated Press ratory disease was a factor
tiple antibiotics frequently and now number 78. in those animals. About 40
used by people and ani- Scientists also found healthy percent of those animals
mals, suggesting human bacteria in the breath sam- had some infection in the
waste contaminating the ples but also worrisome lung, and in some cases,
marine environment, ac- drug-resistant ones such as it was strong enough to
cording to a study pub- salmonella and Staphylo- bacteria in their habitats,” tists develop a baseline to contribute to their deaths,
lished online Friday in the coccus aureus. said Stephen Raverty, the compare changes to the he said.The study said it is
journal Scientific Reports. The whales swim through study’s lead author who is a whales’ respiratory condi- noteworthy that within 30
Scientists followed the urbanized waterways and veterinary pathologist with tions over time. miles of the study area, the
whales as they swam in encounter a number of British Columbia Ministry of Scientists collected 26 city of Victoria, British Co-
Washington state waters environmental stressors Agriculture, Animal Health breath samples from lumbia, does not have a
and waited for them to caused by humans, includ- Centre in Abbotsford. whales around San Juan Is- secondary sewage treat-
surface and exhale. The re- ing everything from what Orcas with weak immune land and compared them ment facility, and instead
searchers on boats would gets flushed down toilets to responses can be more sus- to seawater samples col- discharges waste with only
swing a 25-foot long pole agricultural runoff. ceptible to bacteria result- lected from the millimeter- primary treatment into the
with several petri dishes “They’re recruiting the ing in respiratory disease. thick layer on the surface Salish Sea.
“These animals are subject of Puget Sound. When the Scientists are working on
to many stressors, which re- whales break through the creating personal health
duce the competence of surface of the water, they records for each endan-
their immune systems,” said take in the contaminants gered whale, which are in-
marine mammal veterinar- and other microorganisms tensely tracked and photo-
ian Pete Schroeder, co-au- in that sea layer. Patho- graphed. Individual Puget
thor of the paper. gens and antibiotic-resis- Sound orcas are identified
It’s the first such study to tant bacterial strains were by unique black and white
provide a snapshot of found in both the breath markings or variations in
the pathogen burden of samples and seawater. their fin shapes, and each
this endangered popula- Scientists don’t know whale is given a number
tion. It will also help scien- enough to say how harm- and a name.q